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Afghan Reporter To Die For Insulting Islam Court Delivers Death Sentence Over Article Critical Of Islam Distributed To Class

(AP) Afghanistan's upper house of parliament lauded the death sentence handed down against a local journalist who was found guilty of insulting Islam, an official said Wednesday.

In a statement signed by Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, the chamber's chairman, the Senate also condemned what it called "international interference" to have the sentence annulled, spokesman Aminuddin Muzafari said.

The journalist, 23-year-old Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, was sentenced to death last week by a three-judge panel in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif for distributing a report he printed off the Internet to journalism students at Balkh University.

The article asked why men can have four wives but women can't have multiple husbands.

The court in Mazar-i-Sharif found that the article humiliated Islam. Members of a clerical council also pushed for Kaambakhsh to be punished.

"That issue was not in the (Senate's) agenda, but when lawmakers gathered on Tuesday they insisted on talking about that case," Muzafari said.

Following a debate, lawmakers decided to issue the statement supporting the court's decision, he said.

Kaambakhsh has appealed his conviction and the case will now go to an appeals court. President Hamid Karzai will have the final say in the matter.

International human rights groups have condemned the sentence and called on Afghan authorities to quash it.

But guys, this isn't about religion. It's about government. Repressive governments have done this all through history. It's not about Islam, it's about politics.

(Sorry... I think I just channeled Cpt_Pineapple for a minute. I've so missed him objecting to our interpretation of every news story about religious atrocity.)

I'm not sure if you're just mocking Cpt_Pineapple, but to me fighting the religion and governments who use religion as an excuse for something horrible are causes of equal value.

"The court in Mazar-i-Sharif found that the article humiliated Islam."

One could argue they might be imposing ridiculous laws on their own, but governments imposing Sharia law are really hard to untangle from Islam. They make them up as they go (using an odd form of six-degrees of separation from their prophet), but it seems that their populace is willing to go along with it because they believe the laws are rooted in Muslim teachings.